Sunday, July 01, 2007

Good Java Book and online tutorial

It won't be possible for me to cover everything here, and there are two very good resources available on the web that I want to have us able to refer to. Sort of the textbooks for this tutorial.

First is Sun's Java Tutorial. This is exhaustive, and exhausting. It covers most everything, I guess, but it doesn't tell much of a story, which I hope I will be able to do here. There is the pervasive stench of marketing, which I detest. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental source to look to. I especially think the really high level perspective it offers is good, like here. I won't suggest going through this tutorial, however, because I personally don't like it. There is something cloying and cutesy about Sun's presentation that makes me unable to stomach their tutorial straight through, though I acknowledge that it is a great resource in small bursts.

For a tutorial that you can actually follow without gagging, I like David J. Eck's Introduction to Programming Using Java, fifth edition. It is free to download, so the price is right. More than that, though, I found it very easy to read, free from Sun hype, and its examples are very illuminating.